The Son of the Wasp
by Thanoschild
Summary: What if on the roof of San Francisco, Hope took her son, Jack van Dyne, who witnessed his family turn to dust after Thanos's fatal snap. He then needs the help of the remaining Avengers. But what he doesn't know is the destiny of his family's name that he must fulfill on the way, to bring back the fallen.
1. Chapter 1

He was a thirteen-year-old boy.

A thirteen-year old boy captivated with his family's achievements, his starry eyes steering towards the Quantum Tunnel. And when it flickered, the eyes of the boy were fixated, taken back by his grandfather's conscious word's.

"A reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity." – These were the words from a grandfather, plagued by the horrors of loss and tragedy. His voice shaken with grief and pain, as he lost his charismatic charm for his work. Years have passed, and endless possibilities became simply mere whispers in the lab. Yet it was the voice of his concerned mother that snapped this thirteen-year-old boy's consciousness back to the Sans Francisco rooftop.

"The collection unit activates when you decouple it. It should automatically start absorbing quantum healing particles."

Stood next to Scott, the mother of the boy, Hope Van Dyne, clenched the device in her fingers. Her hair was up in a classic pony-tail fashion, finished with her casual hoodie and jacket. Her face remaining stern. She kept hurdling around the van and resumed her thorough and intense checks. Her eyes often drawn towards the boy in the chair opposite the van. He was calm, holding a vintage-looking stopwatch that matched the brown color of the van. His hands just clutching the buttons, as he looked around him with the repeated pattern of the four adults – first Scott, then his mother, then Janet, and ending with his grandfather, Hank.

"Also make sure you stay out of the tardigrade fields." The slightly elderly woman warned him. Her voice sounded calm, but she smiled almost as if she created a joke in the same sentence "They're cute but they'll eat you. And don't get stuck in a time vortex, we won't be able to save you."

Janet then brushed her grandson's hair. Her own hair, silver and white, flickered like webs of silver yarn in his face. She wore an old tattered beige coat, which was flowing beyond her knees just to the top of her boots. Her face wasn't wrinkled; only the occasional line on her forehead. A sweet but subtle scent of lavender fragrance followed Janet around her, and the machines set up. This gave the boy something else to notice as his mother stood before him, mentoring Scott. Quickly his eyes started to go back and forth. They slowly shut closed, and in his seat the boy, sloped down.

But the tired eyes of the young boy opened quickly, feeling a hand at the back of his head. Before it was apparent again, his vision was clouded in black dots, and as he returned, he witnessed the picture of his shadowed grandfather over him. The pain of the collision causing a little more grief and annoyance.

"Rise and shine."

"Oi!" The boy shouted, now screaming at Hank. His leg swinging with strength to demonstrate how irritated he was. The old man simply smirked. "Not as if we need as much sleep anymore. We're always moving about. When are ..."

Just as the boy began to question what the adults were doing; his mother gave him a disappointing look and snapped the words "Jack van Dyne!"

And the boy's head dropped down to the floor with the announcement of his name. His face, annoyed and shocked as his hands closed over his face. The boy's actions reflecting the attitude of an infant. All the adults now gazed at him. However, Scott was the only one without a concerned look. "Respect." His mother echoed to him.

She was still looking at him, shuffling between the equipment as she did so. Her arm moving multiple hair strands, before pulling them behind her ear. Then she turned, taking a glance at Janet's computer screen, before repositioning her posture, but yet she never stood still. Giving the feeling that something had been incorrect or incomplete.

"Okay. Going subatomic in Five..."

Scott locked the mask of the suit and waited.

"Four. Three. Two. One."

With that, Hope threw the clutch forward with her last number. Her partner shrinking before them, before Scott had completely disappeared towards the van's direction. The tunnel also shutting down. Five became four. The remaining four clouded by fields of doubt. Hank moved towards the radio, grabbing it and then drawing it to his mouth.

"Alright Scott. This is a Mic Check."

They waited for a response. But nothing happened. Everyone suddenly becoming tense and agitated as they waited. Their faces becoming evident to looks of worry and concern. Something had gone wrong, even the thirteen-year-old knew this. Then the sound came through.

"Mic Check. Check one. Check two. How's everybody doing tonight in the Quantum Realm.?"

The witty attitude of Scott came crashing through the radio's speakers. Hope delivering a sigh, as she knelt over the equipment. Her eyes even closed, from the relief. Her father didn't carry the same emotions. His voice became sharp and quick, clearly annoyed and disturbed from the joke.

"Scott, we read you."

"I just want to make sure."

A few more moments passed before he answered again. Only this time he was serious. "Okay. Healing Particles secured for our new ghost friend."

"Alright, preparing for reentry in…"

As Hope continued to speak to Scott, counting down, the cold air appeared to be mild but then intensified with the passing of time. The sky turning grey with almost a vacant appearance. No clouds in sight and no wind moved the air. No weather at all. It was cold, even present in the sun. And while on the rooftop, the streets of San Francisco should have been flooded with people. It sounded almost barren. Just like everybody stood still. The silence and the air sent shivers down the young boy's spine. This was truly the worst of all atmospheres. Hope's voice became coarse and frightened. She looked at her son, her terrified and fearful look not hiding. She started to hear sudden echoes of screams, and it was the catalyst for something awfully wrong. She turned to Janet again, seeing the body crumble to pieces. It was tearing down into specks of dust. And when she finished saying three, Hope dropped her earpiece, preparing to jump towards her mother and her son. That was when Scott heard the radio crackle in the Quantum Realm.

The boy was now standing upright. Jack's eyes tearing as he screamed his mother's name. Hope's hand now repeating the same process of what had happened to his grandma. The hand, which was on the clutch, not present anymore. The clutch moved forward before snapping back to its resting position. This was it all took to turn the machine on for a split second. And at the end of his finger, Jack's last sense of his mother was her hand vanishing. The machine causing him to absorb floods of energy, the boy not yet releasing this.

Then Hank should have been there. But he was gone already. Into the abyss of nothingness. The dust now clouding around his equipment, with spots on the floor from where he should have stood. The radio part swinging side by side, expressing the pleas of Scott.

"Hello? … Ha-ha very funny… Hank stop screwing around… Hank. Hope. Janet… Guys… Guys, seriously, bring me up. Let's go."

But with the last cry of "Guys", the boy looked up, assuming Scott had gone too.


	2. Chapter 2

With one week passing from his family's disappearance, Jack van Dyne was only seen at two precise locations- back on the roof of San Francisco or entering/leaving the family's laboratory. He continued pacing frantically around the quantum tunnel, desperate to find some form of explanation. The boy's look changing dramatically in the matter of 7 days. His face gaunt, as if in the chaos of what has occurred, he had forgotten to eat. And from what was an ideal style of blonde, sandy hair, was a ruffled chaotic mess. More strands of hair, clumping together creating more knots than the possible strands of hair left. Jack's clothes even looked old and more sluggish. His jean's torn from the creases above his knees. But he still clung onto his mother's over sized hoodie. The tender scent of Hope's perfume lingering onto the piece of clothing. This was only the start of processing his grief.

In the first few days, Jack didn't know what to do. He had searched for his mother everywhere, but this didn't impact her possible demise.

He had been crying for days until nothing was left inside. His eyes felt heavy and the remainder of his body slouched, crouched onto the floor. The constant silence around the city could be defined as beauty. But for Jack it wasn't. It had been torture. For all Jack heard, was the echoes of him crying in pain.

The acceptance that his family was gone forever, never leaving his thoughts, and this was too overwhelming for a thirteen-year-old boy. He was ready for them to get back to the lab. Or even the image of Scott enlarging back to his normal size. Those images were constantly replayed in his mind. Not in this reality. He hadn't experienced a nightmare like this. Ever.

And every so often. The boy would hear a voice. The day after he saw the beginning of the decimation, it began. But it just repeated the same words. "Trust me."

It started just twice a day, before repeated the phrase over and over. The van Dyne boy just shrugged it of as his imagination. The acts of isolation and loneliness. He knew he was alone, the moments of continuous sobbing. His tears often flooding the atmosphere around him with a puddle of sorrow. The boy couldn't take it any longer. He was losing himself. Loosing himself to the voice.

With the constant voice and his acts of sadness, Jack started to respond with stages of anger. Something always frustrated him. It was often regarding the various bits of technology that remained around the laboratory. He was eager to get his family back. And still he managed to scrape enough hope in his Grandfather's tech. Jack was sitting there thinking about why he never interested himself in the work of his family. He was just eager for their return. He was tempted to attempt to travel the Quantum Realm to find answers. Thinking often about his grandmother's survival in that abyss. But that was another risk.

Then it occurred.

A bright, glossy blue light flashed around the boy's hand. Lighting up the laboratory, before it vanished. But it didn't stop there, as it continued to repeat again and again. That's when Jack was able to here the voice again. This time, louder and more apparent, as if someone was on his shoulder. Instead of using the same quote as before though, the voices would alter their tunes with each different quotation. With new, frightening voices echoing in Jack's mind. The first voice sounded like a girl. However, her voice didn't carry the sweet tone of a young girl. It felt cold; more ice chilled.

"You were never good enough. You let them go. All of them."

Jack kept hearing this as repeated echoes around the lab, whilst he's eyes and head turned hectically. The second voice then starting to clash against the young girl. Only at this moment, it was the voice of an elderly man- with subtle traces of huskiness in his whispers. In contrast to the girl, however Jack's mind twisted and turned, as the man's voice was determined to show the frightened boy his strength and power.

"Let me guide you. Give in to us."  
The blue lights flickered still. Getting gradually faster and faster. The boy now trusting himself into the crouched ball position among the floor, from the combined intensity of the voices and the ominous light. His hands were drawn over his ears, as he desperately tried to remove the voices. Jack could feel his eyes flooding with tears again, finding it unbearable. The pain he was experiencing, seemingly made the voices louder and louder. He didn't want to open his eyes. But with that thought, they swung open. What Jack saw, he couldn't, possibly explain again. More frustration flooded his thoughts.

There around the lab, a purple-blue mist swooped around. As if it was slithering about; a poisonous, parasite. It swallowed the infinite quantity of device, before it shone blue. Consuming everything in it's past. Just as the boy fell to the ground, he reached his hand forward to the table, drawing a vivid blue light, much like the one he witnessed before the voices came, Blue flames erupted around there. The heat reflected onto his face, as it shone with horror. The shock sent a reaction to his eyes as tears streamed. And from this, he tried to scuffle to his feet, trying not use his hands in desperate attempts to save himself. Once again, the shock overcame his fears. The lab lit up the same blue again as more flames flooded from Jack's body.

From the corner of his tears, he saw Ghost's Energy Chamber and knew it was the one way to stabilize himself from the transition


	3. Chapter 3

"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."

This was just one of the quotes, Jack had read when researching the world of Quantum Energy. His outbursts had come to a standstill in the days when he used the Energy Chamber. Deep down he was frightened. Petrified of hurting himself and others around him. But Jack distracted himself with his fear. Books had been stacked, the tech in the lab covered, and tables were neatly pushed aside.

Instead of having the immaturity of a thirteen-year-old, Jack tried to be resourceful. It was evident that he had used his time to discover a way to release the energy that he had absorbed. He started to record the energy readings from his boy, onto of the chalk boards seen in the lab. The another, included different sketch of machinery, with appropriated equations recorded alongside them. Although it was too late, Jack continued to use Hank's notes. He had his grandfather's folders and manuscripts out in the energy chamber with him, explaining the different possible theses and results concerning Quantum Theory. Yet not one of them referenced his infamous Pym particles. He had been studying as much as he could for days. It was almost as if the boy went from the age of thirteen to twenty years.

However, apart from learning and resting in the chamber, Jack attempted to listen to the world's impact of the decimation. And more importantly the effects of the Avengers. Since Hank, Hope Janet, and Scott disappeared, nothing was said of the improved group. He had anticipated the first few days, but he certainly should of after that. But while he waited for a public announcement, Jack began to use his Quantum Theory knowledge and disassembled the costume of Ghost carefully. He began to develop new equipment combined with the technology to stabilize his state longer. He started to fear that if he isolated himself to the chamber longer, he'd gradually start to become immune to the stabilization process. When he was done developing his own stabilization suit, he knew that he needed assistance.

* * *

When appearing on the news, the facility had seemed a lot smaller. Jack realized he would have some grief, trying to break in but he was desperately in need of help. Especially when he was dealing with the difficulty of controlling his abilities.

The boy was located at the northeast side of the base, just reaching the fence. He just couldn't jump it. No matter how experienced he was. But Jack was determined to get in. For help. For the chance to speak to anyone if not at least someone.

He could feel the rocks underneath his feet, just collapsing to the floor as he perched on the wall's ledge. But the boy wasn't exactly at a safe height. The van Dyne kid would become imbalanced if he just slightly slanted his head to explore the drop. Adrenaline only caused Jack to feel queasier. However, he retreated back, the more his body attempted to force him to go. Back to the stone-cold slabs of the wall behind him. He was awake more than before. But this wasn't the same climb from when he had climbed the climbing wall at 10 years old. He just wished that he had some form of rope in his backpack. Something that would support himself against a fall.

Then Jack took the jump. As he did so, his body twisted and choked. His eyes closed as he fell. He was expecting the impact. But Jack discovered himself standing upright in the building instead of feeling the dirt tough ground. He realized deep down what had happened. But he couldn't control it.

Jack attempted to concentrate on finding someone after adapting to the facility's atmosphere. He paced around the hallway. Trying to be as silent as possible. That's when, from the rooms above, he started to hear a voice.

Not just one voice. Many of them sounded tired and stressed. Sounding almost wounded or deeply saddened. The boy stopped by the door and tried to listen to them. He could now see lights flickering on the ground that was reflected from the holograms and screens. There were also loud high-pitched beeps that echoed around them as well. Just like it was counting down.

"This is a nightmare."

The man was knelt against the chair in front of him. He was sporting a rough beard, which ascended up his face, like vines around a tree. His facial hair dark and thick. And his voice stern. But he just watched the hologram. At the continuous figures that continued to grow with every passing second. The beeping continuing also.

"I've had better nightmares."

His voice ringing out in pain and lost. The eyes of the woman tearing up as she looked in horror and anguish. She was nervous. It was clear to see. She had experienced the pain of losing former friends but not like this.

The boy was sitting now at the door. Jack continued listening to the Avengers, who were still unaware of his presence.

"Hey…So that thing just stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing."

She turned and looked at Steve, her eyes were still teared up. But as his still was, her face was stern. Hard faced with whatever they need to learn next. She sighed. Her thoughts were everywhere. Earlier in that day she was fighting alongside a whole army of Avengers. And now stood the four that was isolated in that very room. Her blonder hair resting on top of her shoulders, while she stared at the pager next to Bruce.

"What have we got?"

"Whatever signal it was sending, it finally crapped out."

"I thought we bypassed the battery." Steve shot back at Bruce.

"Oh, we did, it's still plugged in and it's just, just stopped."

All four of them seemed tenser than before. Each one stared at the device with intent. Their eyes locked on it and yet the screen was still blacked out.

"Reboot it. Send the signal again." Steve ordered.

Bruce raised his arms, clutching onto his glasses in confusion. Clearly scared f the result of whatever the device was doing. He didn't want to question Steve, but they had spent days on this thing. Days that they could have spent trying to rectify the actions of Thanos.

"We don't even know what this is."

"Fury did. Just do it please. You tell me the minute you get a signal." She turned shaking her head. "I want to know who's on the other end of that thing."

She turned around and saw two figures to her surprise. The woman looked at Natasha with confusion and anger while the other figure, Jack van Dyne, cowered behind her.

"Where's Fury?"


End file.
